I wanted to call this Gluten-free Strawberry Shortcake: “the shortcake for people who don’t actually like the strawberries.” Like my son. I started making this version for him last year when I realized that he doesn’t put strawberries on his shortcake. He just ate the cake with cream and a little bit of strawberry juice.
Speaking of eating shortcake with cream. I grew up eating strawberry shortcake as a piece of cake, macerated strawberries and milk or heavy cream poured on top. When I started looking up images that I liked for this recipe I couldn’t find one photo of strawberry shortcake like that! I had no idea that it might be a Lancaster County/Amish thing and thought everyone at it like that. Huh, you learn something new every day!
So, in light of that fact, I would love if you would try this cake with strawberries and cream! It’s so refreshing. Growing up, June was often about having strawberry shortcake for dinner. I mean, who wants to cook when it’s hot outside? It was such a treat to find out my mom had made a cake earlier that morning and the next two meals consisted of strawberries and cake.
This recipe is a derivative of an old Betty Crocker cookbook cake recipe that my mom used for her strawberry shortcake. I elected to add some strawberries into the cake itself to give you the summery strawberry flavor without having to eat the strawberries on top. Or, you could put twice as many on top, like I do! It’s double the strawberry flavor!
This cake is super moist. The kind of moist that leaves a thin layer of cake bottom in the baking pan that you can smear off with your finger? It’s that kind of moist. So, you don’t really need to add cream to the dish if you don’t want to. You can just as well make some whipped cream and serve it like that. It’s delicious either way!
- 2 ½ cups King Arthur Measure for Measure flour
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- 3 ½ tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- ½ cup non-hydrogenated, organic shortening
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 ¼ pureed fresh or frozen strawberries
- ½ cup egg whites
- ¼ tsp. xanthan gum, optional
- Preheat oven to 350˚.
- Prepare a 9”x13” cake pan by lining with parchment and spraying with non-stick cooking spray. (The parchment will allow you to lift it out without the cake breaking.)
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream sugar and shortening.
- Add heavy cream and strawberries and mix well.
- Add flour in two batches mixing well.
- Add egg whites and beat for one minute on high speed.
- Pour into baking pan.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.
- Perfect warm with fresh strawberries and cream!